Larry Oliver Film Reviews

  Pictured : Korean adoptee Anna ( Anna Sargent ) is hugged by her sister Emily ( Ali Ahn ) in a scene from the Florida-set family drama, ' Take Me Home ', written and directed by Liz Sargent , the star's adopted sister. Still courtesy of Tribeca Films Take Me Home , written and directed by Korean American adoptee Liz Sargent, is problematic. It is a drama about an American pinch point: what happens when a Florida-based family who has adopted a ‘disabled’ Korean child, loses the ability to care for her as an adult, in this instance, through both death and cognitive decline? We learn early on that there is no official safety net. What the family has to do is so extreme that you can’t believe they would get away with it. It raises another question: what happens when the surviving parent gets caught? Sargent’s film bears the Sundance logo, which is to say it is conceived with a social purpose, espouses liberal values, shows something sticky and awkward, makes the audience oo...

  Julia Hart’s fourth feature film as director, I’m Your Woman , is conspicuous for a lack of swear words. Perhaps it is because Hart, who co-wrote the film with her husband, Jordan Horowitz, had just made a film for Disney +,   Stargirl , a teen romance starring America’s Got Talent winner Grace VanderWaal who at one point plays the ukulele at a football match. Maybe it is because Hart wanted to redefine the 1970s thriller, the decade in which the film is set. Maybe it is because with cinemas being closed during the Covid pandemic, film is turning into television – and not cable television with few holds barred but television suitable for general audiences. This is not to say there aren’t gunshots in I’m Your Woman – the main character, Jean (Rachel Brosnahan, best known for the Amazon Prime show The Marvellous Mrs Maizel ) is married to a career criminal, Eddie (Bill Heck). However, the makers are intent on tackling some tropes. When we first see Jean, she is lounging in ...